I am a photographer from East Hertfordshire/Essex/London. I started this blog to share some of my photography ideas and thinking. This blog is a mixture of my photography, thinking behind some photo shoots and some equipment reviews. The reviews are just my user experience and nothing more. My passion is portraits, editorial and fashion photography.
If you have any project that need a photographer, please get in touch. My website is at www.yattang.net

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Sunday, September 22, 2013

London Fashion Weekend - Canon DSLR Vs Olympus MFT

I shot at The London Fashion Weekend today. After the positive result I got from The Redbull Soapbox Race, I was keen to test out the continues focus performance of my Olympus E-PM2 again. This time I borrowed a Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8 lens for the fashion show. As a comparison, I wanted to compare it to my Canon EOS 650D with the 24-105mm F4 IS.

Olympus E-PM2 with Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8

By shooting with both camera setup. I can say the continues performance of the 650D with optical viewfinder is just superior to the Olympus E-PM2 with VF3 view finder. It is not all bad, but the the C-AF+TR (continuous + Tracking) gets it wrong about 30% of the time while the Canon 650D hardly got the focus wrong. Also the frame rate for the E-PM2 to continue to AF is very slow. It is suppose to 5FPS, it was significantly slower, more like 3FPS. If this was a paid job, I will shoot with a DSLR, no question.

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

Light level was very consistent but not very bright, I had to shoot at 1/400s, F4 at ISO 800. Colour temperature was about 4400K, very close to florescent.

Olympus E-PM2 with Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8

Overall, if I was to shoot another fashion show or anything that involve moving objects, Micro Four Third cameras will not be my first choice. It is simply not consistently enough and unpredictable. Especially if it is a paid job. Unless Olympus and Panasonic sort out the continuous AF it will never never compete with DSLR. I use M43 cameras because I like the small size and weight.

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

Olympus E-PM2 with Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8

Comparing the two cameras, photo quality are very similar, and it is hard to separate them. Canon have not produced a new sensor for the last 4 years. Even the new 70D 20MP sensor is not much improvement to the 4 year old sensor.

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

After this event, there is no doubt the better system for continuous AF is a DSLR. I will not use my Olympus M43 camera for any moving object. For static objects, image quality is right there with my Canon 650D. Shooting with two system was difficult and does not really help with such a fast pace event. For vacations and events that do not require continuous AF I will still use my Olympus M43 camera.

Olympus E-PM2 with Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

I would like to thank WEX Photographic and Canon UK for the chance to shoot at London Fashion Weekend. All images copyright Yat Tang.